Main menu

Casey Mears was awarded the Sprint Cup pole at Bristol based on practice speeds after qualifying was rained out on Friday. Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

A sudden rainstorm hit Bristol, Tenn. late Friday afternoon and washed out Sprint Cup qualifying for Saturday night's Irwin Tools 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway. Nationwide Series qualifying had just finished when the storm hit the half-mile, high-banked track in northeastern Tennessee.

The grandstand eventually was cleared because of high winds, lightning and low, swirling black clouds that hung around for more than an hour.

NASCAR officials waited from 5:05 p.m. until 6:25 p.m. before finally pulling the plug. By rule, Ford driver Casey Mears will start the 500-lap race from the pole because he was fastest in Friday afternoon's first Cup practice session. It was his first pole this season, the fourth of his career and his first since July of 2007 at Chicagoland Speedway.

“This is exciting for our Geico team and a shot in the arm, for sure,” Mears said. “Starting up front here at Bristol is always a good thing. It gives us a big head start from where we've been in the past. You never want to win a pole like this, but we'll take it. Everybody in that first session wanted to run the fastest to get a late draw for qualifying. Everybody goes out there with the same mindset--to be fast so we get a late qualifying draw--so we feel good about what we've done.”

Brad Keselowski, winner of the last two Cup races at BMS, will start second in a Dodge. The rest of the top-10: series point-leader Greg Biffle (Ford) and Joey Logano (Toyota) on Row 2, Aric Almirola (Ford) and Jeff Burton (Chevy) on Row 3, Paul Menard (Chevy) and Denny Hamlin (Toyota) on Row 4 and Marcos Ambrose (Ford) and five-time BMS winner Kyle Busch on Row 5.

Despite being faster than many others in the first practice, Scott Speed, Kelly Bires, J.J. Yeley and Reed Sorenson didn't make the field because they're not top-35 in owner points. The “rain-out” grid begins with the top-35 in owner points, then slots in past champions not otherwise qualified (in this case, none), 2011 and 2012 race winners not otherwise qualified (none) and finally includes teams with the most attempts.

Saturday night's 500-lap race at the half-mile, high-banked track is scheduled for a 7:30 p.m. start on ESPN.

Lineup for Saturday's NASCAR Sprint Cup race at 850-meter (0.533 mile) Bristol Motor Speedway. Grid set on after Saturday's qualifying was called off.